Saturday 9 October 2021
burgruine osterburg
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฐ, Middle Ages, Rhรถn
Tuesday 5 October 2021
8x8
heir apparent: after over a century, Russia hosts a royal wedding for a member of the Romanoff family
9m²:a luxury apartment in Tokyo that makes very efficient use of space—at more than twice the size, my work-week flat feels rather sprawling and and ilunder-utilised
faux mcdoo: a fake McDonald’s in Los Angeles for filming purposes, via Messy Nessy Chic
tx-33: new lows attained in gerrymandering and voter-marginalisation
full circle: a retrospective exhibit of Judy Chicago
deuce court: a demonstration of medieval tennis
ะฒัะทะพะฒ: cast joins crew aboard ISS to film scenes of the first movie shot in microgravity
catagories: ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ท๐บ, ๐, ๐จ, ๐ฌ, ๐ฑ, ๐ญ, ๐ฅธ, Middle Ages, sport and games
Tuesday 28 September 2021
7x7
pyroclastic flow: paintings of the 1776 eruption of Mount Vesuvius (previously)—via Everlasting Blรถrt
don jumpedo in the character of harlequin jumping down his own throat: an apology for the man in the bottle
twist and bend: superlative balloon art recreating iconic classics
eisenbahnbetriebsfeld: a model railway in Darmstadt used to train train traffic-controllers
store-brand: Kmarto table wine
licorice pizza: a trailer for a 1970s coming-of-age film set in California’s San Fernando Valley—via Waxy
social justice: artist Kerry James Marshall designs new stained glass windows for Washington’s National Cathedral to replace Confederate ones
catagories: ๐บ๐ธ, ๐จ, ๐ฌ, ๐, Middle Ages
Saturday 25 September 2021
day-trip: gemรผnden am main
Taking advantage of the nice weather, H and I took a tour past the outskirts of Bad Kissingen and beyond Hammelburg to explore again the small town at the confluence of four rivers, the Sinn, Saale and Werra all discharging into the River Main—first stopping at the ruins of a hill castle (Hรถhenburg) above the village of Gรถssenheim, one of the largest of its kind in Frankonia.
First erected in the eleventh century for a ministerialis family—that is those ennobled from the ranks of serfdom but yet unfree—in service of the bishopric of Wรผrzburg, later divided between the counts of Rieneck, the dukes of Henneburg and the imperial abbey of Fulda, the hereditary owner’s family branch eventually going extinct. Though surviving the Peasants’ War in the early fifteenth century, the castle lost its strategic importance, efforts forced on holding the waterways and one of the last caretakers, Prince-Bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg (namesake of our next destination), gifted the lands back to the monastery of Wรผrzburg and established fortress in order to control trade (particularly in wine) and river traffic.
It was a lot of fun to explore and imagine what it looked like before falling into neglect and disrepair. The aerial shots are courtesy of H’s drone. Gemรผnden am Main was just a short drive further on and first explored the ruins of the Schrenburg—a customs post, a Zollburg, that dominated the town and commanded view of the river valley below. The remaining curtain wall and bergfried—now a home to bats—hosts open-air theatre in the summer.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฐ, architecture, Bavaria, Middle Ages, Rhรถn
Friday 24 September 2021
6x6
social distancing: a racier version of Bernie Sanders inauguration getup (previously)—via Everlasting Blรถrt
directory assistance: file folders are a foreign concept to younger pupils—via Waxystreet view: a stroll around New York City in 1914
the matter of britain: early fragment of the Arthurian legend discovered and translated
we are on the worst timeline: the future used to be cool
apocalypse no: as a global community, we have overcome some high-hurdles
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ฝ, Middle Ages
Sunday 1 August 2021
the woman with seven sons
The martyred family known as the Holy Maccabees after the epigraphical account in that book who are venerated in some traditions on this day is included in a the poetically entitled list of ‘Names for the Biblically Nameless,’ many apocryphally sourced to the Golden Legend, such as the sisters of Cain and Abel—Aclima (also Luluwa) and Delbora, Nimrod’s Wife—“a mighty hunter in the face of the Lord,” possibly the Amazon Semiramis, and Pharaoh’s (and whole human being in their own right) Daughter, who drew infant Moses from the reeds, possibly Merris according to Eusebius of Cรฆsarea. The Wife of Job who advises him to finally curse God and die, is perhaps called Sitis or Dinah, the Queen of Sheba either Makeda, Nicaule or Bilqis according to different traditions. Proper names are also assigned to the Magi who are also called the Three Wise Men as well as the seven archangels, the thieves crucified with Jesus and the Roman soldier who prodded him on the cross. The woman known variously as Solomonia, Hannah or Miriam is reserved special honour for courageously enduring the torment and dismemberment of her sons and then herself (see also) for refusing to submit to a cruel and capricious king and remaining steadfast in her faith as did the band of brothers.
Sunday 25 July 2021
queenhithe
The Gentle Author of Spitalfield’s Life directs our attention to a new, epic mosaic along the Thames path that illustrates two millennia and more of human history with the estuary’s natural course at the inlet named ‘the Queen’s Harbour’ after Matilda granted around 1104 the establishment of a dock there and the excise of duties on goods delivered. Learn more at the link above, including a treasury of panels from the procession, pictorial chronicle of the ages.
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐, ๐, ๐บ, ๐ฆ, architecture, Middle Ages
Thursday 15 July 2021
elder fuรพark
Tuesday 6 July 2021
zwischenstopp: mellrichstadt
While we’ve mentioned the next bigger town numerous times especially in connection with the dying out of the Henneberg line and Count Poppo and go there regularly (see previously here, here and here), we realised that we’ve not dedicated much writing to the place itself, elevated to the status of a city within the Grand Duchy of Wรผrzburg in the thirteenth century and its importance as a seat of learning with a Latin school in medieval times before desecularisation and joining the Kingdom of Bavaria.
catagories: Bavaria, Middle Ages, Rhรถn
Sunday 27 June 2021
siebenschlรคfertag
This feast day marking the legend of the Seven Sleepers, a group of companions who hid in a cave outside of Ephesus to escape Roman emperor Decius’ persecution of Christians and emerged three-centuries later, also recalls one of the oldest and widespread artefacts of forecasting and weather lore (see also here, here and here) stemming from medieval Europe. The conditions on this day are supposed to be preview of how the skies and temperatures will be for the rest of the summer. I’d say, judging from here and now, we have a fine season ahead of us.
catagories: ๐, ๐ก️, ๐ค️, ๐ , Middle Ages
Tuesday 8 June 2021
cantiones profanรฆ cantoribus et choris cantandรฆ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis
With the above full Latin title, the cantata Carmina Burana (Songs of Beuren—a Benedictine abbey near Bad Tรถlz) of twelfth century meditative texts and poems orchestrally arranged by Carl Orff (*1895 - †1982) had its premier performance on this day in 1937 at the Oper Frankfurt. The opening and closing movements are named “Fortuna Impertrix Mundi” and contain the famous and stirring O Fortuna.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ญ, ๐ถ, Middle Ages
Tuesday 1 June 2021
stultifera navis
A Latin, international edition translated by his pupil Jakob Locher in Strasbourg and published by printer Hans Grรผninger of Sebastian Brant’s 1494 German-language Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools) on this day in 1497 made the late medieval moral allegory a success all over the continent, prompting several more translations, sanctioned and otherwise. The humanist and theologian compiled an anthology of one hundred and twelve brief satires, illustrated with woodcuts (originally issued in Basel), as commentary and condemnation of the human condition, developing the character of Saint Grobian, a patron for the crude, clumsy and gluttonous and is singled out as the best treatment of the trope taken from Plato’s Republic about a dysfunctional crew unable to pilot the ship of state. Locher (*1471 – †1528), the student who translated the work, went by the Latin name Philomusus and became a professor of Humanism and a dramatist himself and published a multivolume study on comparative religion. Though an artefact of medieval sensibilities sharpened with the focus of scholasticism, the conceit, tempered with allegory, gave the authors’ license to, writing in the voice of the fool, to legitimately criticise church and court.
Sunday 30 May 2021
sunday drive: wasserschloss roรrieth and walldorfer-kirchenburg
For what was the first time in a long time, H and I took advantage of the fine and sunny weather and visited a few sights from outdoors on either side of Mellrichtstadt and Meiningen first with the moated castle located within a small farming village of the same name. Existing as the seat of a lordship since the twelfth century before being destroyed for harbouring highwaymen in 1401, the rebuilt sixteenth century compound was in the ownership of the rulers of Ost- and Nordheim until the mediatisation of imperial immediacy at the beginning of the nineteenth century (die Reichsdeputationhauptschluss von 1803) when transferred to the Free State of Bavaria.
The high keep with residential structures and a garden was used as a protected farmyard through the ages as it is today, restored after reunification and a fire in 2012 that caused extensive damage. Beyond its historical value as a monument, designs for restoration undertaken and achieved have made it moreover a “biotope church” with a replacement roof optimised for nesting kestrels, a colony of jackdaws (Dohlen), bats, bees that visit the old cottage gardens plus a nesting stork with a young brood.
catagories: ๐ฐ, ๐, ๐ฆ, Middle Ages, Rhรถn
Saturday 29 May 2021
homo signorum
Public Domain Review indulges our curiosity and resurgent obsession with astrology (see also) in these early Renaissance anatomical depictions of the Zodiac Man, with star signs appended to the organs and humours that they were thought to influence. The inclusion of such diagrams (see previously) in medical texts was to ensure auspicious (or at least not oppositional and ill-timed) scheduling of treatments and surgeries—avoiding, for instance, bloodletting when the Moon was in Aries as a cure for headaches. The full correspondence, at least according to the observations and experience if one seventeenth century physician, is listed below:
ARIES: Head, Sinus, Eyes, Blood Pressure TAURUS: Ears, Neck, Throat, ShouldersGEMINI: Nervous System, Respiratory Stems, Arms, Hands
CANCER: Chest, Lymphatic System, Plasma
LEO: Heart, Spleen, Spinal Column
VIRGO: Trunk, Intestines, Gallbladder, Pancreas, Liver
LIBRA: Back, Hips, Endocrine Gland, Kidneys
SCORPIO: Reproductive Organs, Urinary Bladder, Rectum, Pelvis
SAGITTARIUS: Legs, Thighs
CAPRICORN: Skin, Knees and Bones
AQUARIUS: Ankles, Blood
PISCES: Feet, Serum
More details and collections from Public Domain Review at the link above.
catagories: ♏, ⚕️, Middle Ages
Monday 10 May 2021
a cautionary tale
Though exploitative and terribly, predictably misogynistic, via Super Punch, we enjoyed learning about the popular late medieval trope of the Frankish thirteenth century story le Lai d’Aristote / Aristoteles und Phyllis depicted in numerous media in art and artefacts spanning into the modern era and upheld to a degree in academia. The conceit, with some significant variation depending on the version, is that the seductive can over take the greatest intellect, countering a dominatrix with the great philosophical mind with their attendant gendered roles—see also Socrates and Xanthippe. Caught by the royal retinue undergoing the humiliation of being ridden, Aristotle excuses himself with Amour vainc tot, & tot vaincra / tant com il monde durea—Love conquers all and all shall conquer as long as the world lasts.
catagories: ๐ซ๐ท, ๐, ๐จ, ๐ญ, Middle Ages
Monday 3 May 2021
fah ond fyrgeard ferhearde heold
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐บ, ๐, Middle Ages
Sunday 14 March 2021
helige mathilde von sachen
Patroness of, among other things, disappointing children, Saint Matilda of Ringelheim (see previously) is venerated on this day on the occasion of her death in Quedlinburg in 968 (*892), acclaimed for her charitable acts and strong sense of justice. Despite her status as a king-maker and raising ostensibly, widow of Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, regnant and politically savvy in her own right, her eldest son Otto I who restored the Holy Roman Empire, Bruno, Archbishop of Kรถln, Gerberga Queen of France through marriage to Louis IV, Hedwig, mother of Hugh Capet and perhaps tellingly Henry, Jr. made Duke of Bavaria and called the quarrelsome, matters soon descended into petty squabbles over land, inheritance and alliances. Accused of mismanagement and sent into exile with Emperor Otto staking claim to his mother’s possessions, Matilda (from Old High German, incidentally, for the Mightiest in Battle) and it remains a point of contention the exact nature of these feuds and whether the family was ever reconciled. Despite or rather because of this administrative embargo, Matilda focused her efforts on establishing more monastic communities for women on her estates, sought and granted ecclesiastical immediacy and papal privileges for all convents in East Francia.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ✝️, Middle Ages, Saxony
Thursday 11 March 2021
8x8
topsy-turvy: the architecture of the upside-down
forever blowing bubbles: the symbols of Wall Street, capitalism protest art
hashtag hastings: remix your own Bayeux Tapestry (previously)—via Kottkesit, ubu, sit: Pablo Picasso called the injured owl he discovered and nursed back to health by that name partly out of assonance with ‘hibou,’ French for hoot, and the obnoxious Alfred Jarry character
voyager station: orbiting cruise ship set to open as early as 2027—via the always excellent Nag on the Lake
0 bby or star wars retrofitted: remastering the franchise with references to what’s been revealed in the past four decades
tailpipe: visualising carbon dioxide emissions through a driving game—via Waxy
bright and airy: an inside-out concept residential project with lots of ventilation
catagories: ๐ก️, ๐จ, ๐ฑ, ๐ญ, architecture, Middle Ages, Star Wars
Wednesday 17 February 2021
zea mays
Having recently posted about the original by the Hot Butter ensemble, we quite enjoyed discovering—courtesy of Pasa Bon!—this clever, well-arranged medieval cover (see previously) of Pop Corn. Many more covers versions to be found clicking through at the link up top or by letting the play-list cycle through below.
catagories: ๐ถ, Middle Ages